Evidence of climate change and its effects in the Mediterranean
- This article is a translation of:
- Manifestations des changements climatiques et leurs impacts en Méditerranée [fr]
Full text
1Climate change, a field of multidisciplinary research, has been a major focus of geographers in recent years. Numerous studies are available today on this environmental problem, of different spatial and temporal scales. The Mediterranean is considered by the IPCC to be one of the most sensitive geographical areas where manifestations of climate change and their impacts on ecosystems, humans and their activities, are the most sensitive. Professor Gérard Beltrando (2015)* summarizes this observation as follows:
2The evolution of the climate and the sea level in particular are important. It is also an area formerly anthropized which today has a significant increase of its population on the coastal strip. These high human densities, impact both natural and cultural heritage, the developments have major and diversified economic and social effects. But can we distinguish between what is the result of the action of climate, its variability – whether natural or related to human-induced climate change – and what is induced by susceptibility and vulnerability (human development, water sealing of soils...)? .
3The current special issue consists of a series of studies on the manifestations of climate change and their impacts in the Mediterranean. Much of these papers were presented at an international symposium held in Kerkennah, Tunisia, October 20th through 25th, 2015. The main topics addressed during this scientific event were:
4The observation of the current climate evolution and the change simulated by the models of the climate;
5Environmental change in the Mediterranean: consequences, adaptation and vulnerability;
6The risk linked to the nature and the resilience of urbanized areas in the Mediterranean littoral environment.
7This colloquium, which brought together about 80 researchers from both shores of the Mediterranean region, was the result of a Franco-Tunisian collaboration, precisely between the University of Paris Diderot and the University of Sfax and is an extension of a program PHC UTIQUES managed by Campus France (2010-2013). Coordinated by Gérard Beltrando and Abdelkarim Daoud, it aimed at characterizing the factors responsible for the vulnerability of the Kerkennah archipelago.
8The works selected in this issue cover topics ranging from the impacts of certain developments in urban areas on the thermal comfort in a neighbourhood to the simulation of the future climate and the study of extreme phenomena throughout the Mediterranean, and the study of biodiversity and vulnerability in an archipelago, a plain or a bay.
References
Bibliographical reference
Abdelkarim Daoud and Salem Dahech, “Evidence of climate change and its effects in the Mediterranean”, Méditerranée, 128 | 2017, 7.
Electronic reference
Abdelkarim Daoud and Salem Dahech, “Evidence of climate change and its effects in the Mediterranean”, Méditerranée [Online], 128 | 2017, Online since 01 November 2018, connection on 07 February 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/mediterranee/8519; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/mediterranee.8519
Top of page